Designs for £26m station are revealed

The first designs for a second railway station in Cambridge have been revealed, as the project approaches another key milestone.

Preliminary sketches for the £26 million Cambridge Science Park station, which is planned to open at Chesterton sidings in 2015, show a two and three-storey station building linked by a footbridge and lifts to three platforms.

Kate Atkin, 47, who will live near the new station, welcomed the plans and hopes it may help save the former Penny Ferry pub in Water Street from being turned into flats.

The Scotland Road resident said: “The new station is a very positive thing and will bring some vibrancy to the area and it may change the mind of planners about turning the Penny Ferry into flats and to keep it as a community facility.

“The station will be great for the area and I will certainly be using it.”

The main building would front onto a tree-lined public square, and the designs also include an extension to the guided busway, 1,000 bike parking spaces and 450 car bays.

Cambridgeshire County Council intends to borrow the cost of the station construction, and then recoup this money from train operators’ ticket sales.

The authority’s cabinet is set to agree to seek planning permission when it meets on Tuesday, January 29.

Members will be told a public consultation, which attracted 1,200 responses, found 90 per cent supported the project.

Cllr Ian Bates, the cabinet member for growth and planning, said: “I am excited to say that the planning application or the new Cambridge Science Park railway station will be submitted shortly.

“November’s very successful consultation showed that people are really behind the proposals, with almost 90 per cent of those who responded saying they were in favour of the new station being built.

“We have also worked closely with cycling groups, disability groups, local businesses and organisations, as well as our partners and local district councils on the plans, and it is fantastic to see this work start to pay off.”

As a result of the consultation, some of the bike parking has been relocated to the north of the site, to cater for cyclists arriving down Cowley Road, and room has been left to allow for screening close to homes, if required.

Concerns about parking in nearby residential streets, and possible use of nearby Bramblefields nature reserve as a cycle and pedestrian link, will also have to be addressed.

Cabinet members are also asked to approve the use of compulsory purchase powers, if required, to secure some parcels of land needed for the station and the Chisholm Trail cycle route.

Carolin Göhler, chief executive of conservation group, Cambridge Past Present and Future, said: “Obviously a new train station at Chesterton is essential and will give the local economy a huge boost. That need is not in doubt.

“However, we do think that the plan for the station needs to be considered in the wider context of the space in which it will be built. This is one of the most important developments sites in Cambridge and we have only one opportunity to get it right.”

Just need another one of these at Addenbrookes, another entrance building on the other side of Cambridge station and we might actually have a decent transport system. Well for trains anyway. Don't mention the pathetic ring road, bus terminal and the un-guided buses.

If Network Rail or the County Council do not want to invest in solar energy they could let the space above the cycle parking to a solar panel operator and make some money from what looks like south-facing glass/acrylic panel roofs.

I'd like to see the possibility of the St Ives branch being re-used as a railway and a potential alignment designed in. It's the sort of thing that might come in handy in say 50 years time, when the concrete busway is breathing its last. 50 years also happens to be the time between today - and the Beeching Axe...just when we're thinking that some of those old rail alignments might have come in handy...